Tuesday, October 30, 2007

The McClatchy Company’s Raleigh News & Observer “broke” what was then called “the Duke lacrosse rape story” with a front-page "news report" on March 24, 2006 that repeatedly told readers the then anonymous Crystal Mangum was the “victim.”

The N&O followed that the next day with another front-page "news report" about what it said was “an ordeal” that ended in “sexual violence.”

The N&O withheld from that story the critically important news Mangum had given the N&O: Directly contradicting what Mike Nifong claimed, Mangum told the N&O the other dancer at the lacrosse party had also been raped, but didn’t report it for fear of losing her job.

The N&O sat for thirteen months on that news, disclosing it only the day after the NC AG had declared the players innocent.

John Drescher, the managing editor of The News & Observer, became the newspaper's top editor today. He succeeds Melanie Sill, who was named editor of sister paper The Sacramento Bee. […]

Both newspapers are owned by the California-based McClatchy Co.

Drescher, 47, becomes the newspaper's seventh executive editor. He also became a Senior Vice President of the News & Observer.

"I cannot think of anyone more qualified to lead our newsroom," N&O president and publisher Orage Quarles III said in a prepared statement. "He brings all the necessary skill sets needed to help us navigate through the challenging environment that we face."[…]

Sill hired him as managing editor six months after her promotion to the top N&O editing job in 2002. […]

Sill has been at The N&O for just shy of 25 years, rising through the ranks from feature writer. She edited a series of stories including the hog waste project that won the Pulitzer gold medal for public service in 1996.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Melanie Sill and John Drescher do.

By all means contact them. Ask for their explanation of the N&O's Duke Hoax coverage.

But be sure to read also the following three posts which are only a few of the many JinC posts documenting the N&O’s roles in first, launching the witch hunt and then, enabling and sustaining the attempted frame-up for thirteen months.

If you're involved with the McClatchy Watch site, you may want to check JiC's archives and create a synopsis of Ms. Sill's performance in the Duke Lacrosse Burning to illustrate why she's such a prefect choice to edit the SacBee.

Hey, maybe she can get them commit more resources and front-page space to inaccurate and inflammatory reporting on the DeAnza "rape" case.